Laois County Childcare Committee
On June 6th 2024, The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman
announced plans for an additional €14 million in supports for children with a disability under the
Access and Inclusion Model (AIM).
AIM was first introduced to ensure that children with a disability could access and meaningfully
participate in the State-funded Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme in mainstream
settings – through a suite of universal and targeted supports.
Up until now, a key support – additional funding to providers to enable a lower adult-child ratio – was
allocated for the duration of the ECCE programme only (i.e. 3 hours per day, 5 days per week and 38
weeks per year).
The additional funding will ensure an increasing number of ECCE-enrolled children can be supported
under AIM. It will support an extension of AIM support from September 2024, meaning that children
with a disability enrolled in the ECCE programme will now be fully supported to access and participate
in early learning and childcare settings beyond the time they spend in that programme – both in term
and out of term.
Combined with existing supports through the ECCE programme and Core Funding, providers will be
funded for up to a further 15 hours of capitation per week in term and for 30 hours per week out of
term to enable a lower adult-child ratio.
Since AIM was first launched in 2016, more than 28,000 children have received targeted AIM supports
in over 4,400 settings nationally and many more children have benefited from its universal supports.
AIM has also been recognised nationally and globally, winning awards for excellence in practice and
inclusion.
Minister O’Gorman said:
“Every child should have access to high quality early learning and care.”
“The findings from the evaluation I published in January show the enormous difference AIM is making
to the lives of children with a disability.”
“This extension will bring further benefits to these children and support access to early learning and
childcare on a par with their peers.”
“This extension is among a suite of actions officials in my Department are taking to ensure we continue
to build on the success of AIM to ensure, going forward, AIM works in the best interest of all children
and families.”
Applications for these additional hours will open in the coming weeks for the 2024/2025 programme
year.
While the AIM application process remains open year round, providers and parents are advised, where
possible, to apply at least three months before the child’s planned start date in the Early Childhood
Care and Education (ECCE) programme, in order to ensure that the application can be processed in a
timely manner.
Notes for Editor
The Access and Inclusion Model, AIM, enables children with a disability to access and participate
meaningfully in the State-funded ECCE programme in mainstream settings to the same degree as their
peers. AIM is based on need and does not require a formal diagnosis of disability. AIM seeks to create
a more inclusive environment in early learning and childcare settings, and achieves this by providing
universal supports and targeted supports to settings, which focus on the needs of the individual child.
Universal supports are designed to create a more inclusive culture in early learning and care settings,
through training courses and qualifications for staff. Where universal supports are not enough to meet
the needs of an individual child, targeted supports are available. Targeted supports under AIM include:
One of the commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children and
their Families, was to undertake an evaluation of AIM and, subject to evaluation findings and other
relevant developments, to consider enhancements to, and/or extension of, AIM to, for example, all
early learning and care services, all school-age childcare services and to children with additional needs
other than a disability.
The AIM evaluation was published in January 2024. The findings have informed this expansion of
targeted AIM supports to children beyond time spent in the ECCE programme, in term and out of term
from September 2024. The intent of the additional hours funding is to support ECCE-enrolled children
with a disability to access early learning and care outside of the ECCE programme if they wish to do
so.
In addition to this, an action plan has been developed to respond to areas for improvement identified
through the AIM evaluation, including increasing awareness of AIM, further building the capacity and
confidence of educators and providers in supporting children with autism and streamlining the
application process for equipment, appliances, and minor alterations.
Issued by the Press and Communications Office at the Department of Children, Equality,
Disability, Integration and Youth.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
One of the commitments in First 5, the Whole-of-Government Strategy for Babies, Young Children
and their Families, was to undertake an evaluation of AIM and, subject to evaluation findings and
other relevant developments, to consider enhancements to, and/or extension of, AIM to, for
example, all early learning and care services, all school-age childcare services and to children with
additional needs other than a disability.
The AIM evaluation was published in January 2024. The findings from the evaluation have
informed this expansion of targeted AIM supports to children beyond time spent in the ECCE
programme, in term and out of term from September 2024. The intent of the additional hours
funding is to support ECCE-enrolled children with additional needs to remain in services for the
full day if they wish to do so.
AIM is designed to ensure that children with additional needs can participate in Early Learning and
Care (ELC) including the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programme. ECCE is a free
pre-school programme providing all children with access to pre-school 3 hours per day, 5 days per
week. Children can be registered on the ECCE Programme if they are over 2 years and 8 months
before 1st September and remain in free pre-school until they transfer to primary school
(provided that they are not older than 5½ years at the end of the pre-school year.
For the 2024/25 programme call, children registered for ECCE and attending a service providing
ECCE can avail of AIM outside of ECCE hours. As such, in order for a child to access AIM supports,
s/he must be registered on the ECCE programme in an ECCE-registered pre-school service and in
order to access AIM additional hours s/he must have an NCS claim in place.
The maximum number of additional hours of support available is 30 hours per week, which
includes ECCE programme attendance of 15 hours per week in term.
A guide to apply for AIM is available at the following link: How to Apply – Access and Inclusion
Model (aim.gov.ie)
Applications for AIM targeted supports (Levels 4-7) are completed by the childcare service
provider in collaboration with the child’s parent/guardian. Most pre-school providers should be
familiar with the AIM application process and be able to guide parents through the application.
The application for AIM supports for time spent in ECCE are currently open. The system add-on to
support the application process for additional hours is currently under development. An
announcement will be made when it goes live in the coming weeks.
The hours are not fixed and families can use as many hours as they need. Hours outside of ECCE
will be linked to the NCS claimed hours. For example, an eligible child using 15 hours per week
and 10 hours of NCS subsidised early learning and care can receive 25 hours AIM support.
AIM, alongside other early learning and childcare schemes, operates on an annual programme
cycle commencing in September of each year. To allow providers and the administrative systems
to be ready to roll out this major change, it is important that this new measure follow the normal
programme cycle.
There are no changes to the ECCE programme. ECCE is a free pre-school programme providing all
children with access to pre-school 3 hours per day, 5 days per week. Children can be registered on
the ECCE Programme if they are over 2 years and 8 months before 1st September and remain in
free pre-school until they transfer to primary school (provided that they are not older than 5½
years at the end of the pre-school year.
When first introduced, AIM supports were designed to support the meaningful participation of
children with a disability in the ECCE programme. An end of year 3 evaluation of AIM took place
and was published in January 2024. Based on the evaluation findings and other relevant
developments, the Department is considering further enhancements to AIM including expansion
to other age groups.
Due to differences in relation to provision and regulatory requirements depending on the age of
the children, consideration must be given to how exactly an expansion would work for different
age groups. The expansion committed to under Budget 2024 – additional hours for ECCE age
children – is a first step. Further thought and design is required before undertaking more complex
expansions. It must also be taken into consideration that there has been a series of major shifts
in early and learning and childcare driven by the substantial investment in recent years and we
must introduce change at a rate providers can manage.
While the Department does not determine early year’s educators’ working conditions, it has
provided a range of supports to service providers to enable them to improve wages and working
conditions and to support the recruitment and retention of staff. The additional funding supplied
by this change to AIM will allow early learning service providers the opportunity to recruit staff
for longer hours. The offer of additional hours should make the position of AIM Additional
Assistant more secure and consistent for applicants to this position.
As well as additional funded hours, the AIM capitation rate will increase by 2.5% from September 2024 – to €246 per week for the 15-hour capitation rate and €492 per week for the 30-hour capitation rate.
The increase in the capitation rate will enable a continued alignment between AIM funding and wider
funding for the ECCE programme, which is also supplemented by Core Funding.
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